There’s more than corn in Indiana

A friend of mine recently came into the Local & Family History Department to visit and to check out what we had here. He’s interested in Native American mythology and folklore so I showed him the resources we had. While flipping through an issue of Outdoor Indiana we came across a small article about odd stories from the state, one of which was about the Pukwudjies. Pukwudjies are part of Native American folklore: they are supposedly a tribe of tiny “wild men” who reside around Mounds State Park in Anderson, Indiana. This led me to wonder what other cool weird stuff is believed to exist in Indiana.

Apparently there’re a decent amount of bigfoot sightings here, even one in St. Joseph County in 2000.

In the early part of the century there were many reports of a Loch Ness monster-like serpent creature inhabiting Koontz Lake in Walkerton. Checking our bound copies of the Walkerton Historical Society’s newsletter, Voice of the Past, I found an article quoting the Walkerton Independent from 1902 and 1912 describing local witnesses’ encounters.

From the unknown of Earth to the unknown of space: there have been numerous UFO sightings in the state. You can read about many of them here.

The unknown of space and Earth could only be followed by the just plain unknown. Fans of the t.v. show Ghost Hunters should also note there is a South Bend chapter of the Indiana Ghost Trackers, who regularly hold meetings at the Library that are open to the public.

In case you don’t buy into any of this you can check out the Indiana Skeptics to find more people to say bollocks with.